Blog Tour: Night Games by Collette West

Night Games
by Collette West
Release Date: February 28th 2014
Rate: Average (3 stars)

Synopsis:

The moment Grey Kelleher locks eyes with All-Star shortstop Chase Whitfield, she's a goner. For years, she's watched him play on TV, and now she's gazing at his hard, lean body across a bar in her hometown.

Grey's crush on Chase goes all the way back to his rookie season. So when she approaches him for an autograph, she's startled by what a jerk he can be.

Chase is no mood to humor his fans, even one as alluring as Grey. He's in the last year of his contract and stuck having to prove himself on a minor league team. He's only there to rehab an injury, nothing more.

But when Grey tells him off, Chase realizes her fiery spirit may be just the distraction he needs to take his mind off not being in the majors. His heart is safe. No one's going to break his streak as baseball's most eligible bachelor. Not even someone as irresistible as Grey.

Night Games was a good, sweet romance. While I have to admit that I liked it, I also have to say that I have some mixed feelings, too.

Grey's a good woman, hard worker, with a celebrity crush on Chase Whitman. One opportunity of watching her baseball idol with her sister, leads her to met him and that's the very moment Grey's world changes forever.

Chase Whitman had it all: fame, money, women and the dream work of being a baseball player. His life's now kind of miserable due to a leg injury, and the last thing he was searching for was a woman like Grey: who would put his world upside down.

Okay, I truly liked the idea: famous baseball player meets normal girl. Falls in love, a little bit of drama and they end up together, happily ever after. Sometimes you just want one of those stories and Night Games promised that.

While I enjoyed the story, it is also true that the plot was kind of slow and nothing big happens. To me, there was no "wow effect" and I couldn't quite catch the climatic point in the story. I ended up, rushing things a little bit just to get to the end and see how Grey and Chase's relationship would end.

Despite this, I liked the touch of drama in their relationship. The author mixed some actual problems with Grey's past and Chase's famous status and job. I liked that they both were implicated in the drama. There was also some action, brought by the couples' problems, that kept things interesting until the very end.

The romance was a good one. The main character is the perfect representation of a good girl, a hard worker who has a tough life since her mother's sick. She also sticks out for the people she cares and you easily like her from the beginning. Once thing in particular that I didn't like about her is her sudden mood change: she could easily go from hating Chase to the very next second remembering her teen crush on him and go all girly on him. It was kind of confusing to me. 

Chase Whitman would be the perfect sporty guy: handsome, with money, a womanizer and someone who knew that had everything. You instantly like him, 'cause he's a good guy with a façade. However, there were some scenes where he seemed kind of bipolar: sometimes he was a jackass in his full man douchebag moves and all of a sudden was the sweetest and most comprehensive boy in the world. What? Wanna give me a heart-attack or what, Chase?

Pretty much the scenes between these two characters were lovable and sweet, but at the same time intense. There's a lot of potential in Chase and Grey's relationship and you end up liking them. 

The only scene that didn't like and made me doubt about their relationship, was the whole let's get marry. It was way unexpected and soon (a few chapters only). And then Chase learns something bad about Grey's past and suddenly he can marry her anymore? I had to insert in this chapter a !"come-on-face".

The ending, once again, was nothing that wowed me. It was as expected a happily ever after, but without any swoony aspect or climatic touch that would blow my mind. I think that maybe I was expecting a little more about Collette's story.

Despite my mixed feelings with Night Games, I bet you would have a good time reading Collette West's debut novel. It's not an awful story, on the contrary, Chase and Grey's romance story is a good one, and I'm sure you would have a good time reading it. So give it a chance, it might surprise you!

Author's dream cast

Chase Whitfield (leading man): Wentworth Miller

I needed someone with a sexy edge, and a long, lean athlete's body. Chase's blue-green eyes are hypnotic, and I think Wentworth's would fit the bill nicely. In terms of ethnicity, he's visually ambiguous which I love. He could be white, black, Latino - you name it. 

Grey Kelleher (leading lady): Lily Collins

What draws Chase to Grey is her chocolate brown eyes and I think Lily's convey that sense of innate warmth and understanding. Lily's ebony hair and alabaster skin are also a perfect match, as well as the bangs Chase likes to part with his lips.

Noah Martin (Chase's driver/new best friend): Jonah Hill

Noah idolizes Chase, and I couldn't help but notice the similar dynamic Jonah had with Leonardo DiCaprio in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. Noah's out of shape and his hair is no stranger to frizz, but he means well.

Erin Kelleher (Grey's sister): Lea Michele

Picture Rachel Berry at her most obnoxious, and that's Erin in a nutshell. She has a big mouth and she's not afraid to stick her foot in it, especially when she's had a little too much to drink. From the stands, she heckles Chase to no end when he ignores her entreaties to bend over.

Irina Portanova (Chase's current girlfriend): Gisele Bundchen

She's a bombshell. Sun-kissed skin. Honey-streaked hair. Big boobs. As Chase's current celebrity girlfriend, she's known to turn heads as a world famous lingerie model. Too bad she can't seem to hold his interest past her annoying accent.

Brody Hernandez (Grey & Erin's friend): Jay Hernandez

Grey and Erin haven't seen Brody since high school, but Chase doesn't know that. When he sees Grey hugging him in a bar, he gets all kinds of jealous.

Collette West grew up as somewhat of a jock-nerd hybrid. Entering the world three weeks premature, her dad nearly missed her birth because he had seats behind the dugout for a sold-out, highly-anticipated match-up between two of baseball's biggest rivals. Not to be outdone, her book-loving mom taught her how to read by the time she was three. A love of the game coupled with an appreciation for the written word were instilled in Collette's impressionable brain from a young age. No wonder her characters believe in the philosophy: sports + romance = a little slice of heaven.

Splitting her time between the Pocono Mountains and Manhattan, Collette indulges her inner fangirl by going to as many games as she can from hockey to baseball and downloading every sports romance novel in existence onto her iPad. When she's not clicking away on her laptop, she enjoys walking her dog in Central Park, satisfying her caffeine craving at the Starbucks on Broadway and keeping an eye out for Mr. Right. But above all, she loves dishing with her readers. Email her at collette_west@yahoo.com. Sign-up form for email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/OetSj

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